The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a grant worth nearly $6 million to a team of scientists at the Jupiter, Fla.-based campus of The Scripps Research Institute to develop a revolutionary HIV/AIDS alternative vaccine.
The research will be led by TSRI Professor Michael Farzan, PhD, and his team, which received widespread attention when its drug candidate, called eCD4-lg, was tested in animal models and offered them complete protection against the virus for up to one year. The results of the study were so powerful and universally effective that the researchers suggested the drug may serve as an alternative HIV/AIDS vaccine.
Dr. Farzan and his team of researchers will be supported by four years of funding through the Gates Foundations' first grant.
"I'm grateful to the Gates Foundation for its strong support of our research and for its continued commitment to eradicating HIV/AIDS throughout the world," said Dr. Farzan.
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